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Original poster

Moving from London to South Wales

103 replies

reptyle · 29/12/2023 08:25

DH and I are hoping to start a family soon. We’ve been living in London for the last 12 years and feel it’s time to move to a new place. We can’t afford to raise a family in London but we can work remotely and or change jobs.

Our budget is around £800k, we can get a mortgage for the right property but a big reason for moving is to be mortgage free. We need three bedrooms minimum. We are leaning towards the countryside but would consider living in a town. We need to be less than an hour drive to Cardiff Central station.

Any tips, areas, ideas?

OP posts:
rochethenut · 29/12/2023 08:26

Do you have any links to this area at all?

I am an ex londoner and know south wales and no… i would no move there

rochethenut · 29/12/2023 08:26

you have £800k cash at the ready?

Original poster
reptyle · 29/12/2023 08:29

My links to South Wales are that I was born here but moved to Bristol aged three. I have cousins in and around Cardiff.

OP posts:
rochethenut · 29/12/2023 08:32

so you visit often and like the area?

Geoff0409 · 29/12/2023 08:34

@reptyle if you have links there that's fair enough. £800k is a huge budget. If you know what cash budget is, I'd personally look at that with say keeping back £50k for savings and see what you can buy and where. My Uncle moved from greater London to Wales for exactly the same reason, but his budget was far less than yours. Good luck with your move.

MissBattleaxe · 29/12/2023 08:37

It's a great place to live. Coasts, countryside, free prescriptions and Cardiff is buzzing. With a decent budget try Cowbridge or Penarth. Further out, Abergavenny is three train stops from Cardiff Central and right on the edge of the Brecon Beacons.

Original poster
reptyle · 29/12/2023 08:41

Yes, £800k is roughly our budget after we sell our 2 bedroom flat in London. We’re already planning on keeping some cash for savings.

OP posts:
rochethenut · 29/12/2023 08:42

So you have £800k equity in your flat?

SquashPenguin · 29/12/2023 08:42

Another vote for Penarth if that’s your budget. Abergavenny is lovely but a bit further out. That sort of budget will go VERY far in this part of the country.

Original poster
reptyle · 29/12/2023 08:44

It’s one of the draws for moving yes!

Yes, £800k equity. Dp and I have worked in the city for 10 years and aggressively overpaid our mortgage.

OP posts:
Thingamebobwotsit · 29/12/2023 08:50

I would go for Vale of Glamorgan - includes Cowbridge but lots of lovely villages too.

I will be honest though. We lived in S Wales for a long time. Lifestyle wise it was lovely - beach on doorstep, lower costs of living etc but it isn't utopia. I may get jumped on here, as there are really strong feelings about this on either side of the River Severn but - although we loved it in Wales and I worked there for 15 years - once you are outside Cardiff, public services are a lot better in England ... even after 10 + years of Tory austerity. Successive attempts at addressing this by the Welsh Government haven't made a noticeable difference for a lot of Wales. Cardiff and the Vale are like a little bubble by comparison to the rest of Wales.

KievLoverTwo · 29/12/2023 08:52

Before you get set on this, can I suggest you look seriously at internet please.

Idk about Wales but in the countryside locations I would want to live in in N Yorkshire (about a dozen of them), we have been repeatedly hampered by unfeasible internet.

So I started a thread on here, and loads of people said 'don't be silly, it's fine, we have x, and we have y, and you can try this' So I went back to a bunch of locations people said were fine, found a new bunch of houses, and most of them were very far from fine.

Power cuts also have to be considered, though if you have 800k I guess you can afford a backup generator or something?

We are rural now. A tractor went into our phone line and we had no internet for 30 days. Luckily we have good mobile data and survived, can't say the same applies elsewhere - we had to order new Sims for a mast that is 300 ft away, so we got lucky there.

Ofc Starlink exists, but you have no way of knowing if it will work and how well until you are in the house with the kit.

Anyyyyyyyway, have a good look at it if it's crucial.

And if anyone in N Yorks wants to sell me their lovely countryside or village house with a great internet connection, hit me up! :p

IClaudine · 29/12/2023 08:56

Power cuts also have to be considered, though if you have 800k I guess you can afford a backup generator or something?

A back up generator? OP says she wants to be less than an hour's drive from Cardiff Central, so I don't think this will be an issue.

rochethenut · 29/12/2023 09:00

reptyle · 29/12/2023 08:44

It’s one of the draws for moving yes!

Yes, £800k equity. Dp and I have worked in the city for 10 years and aggressively overpaid our mortgage.

do you enjoy london? want to be close to go for evening theatre / meet friends etc

i loved london
moved to a lovely town in kent
and also love it

your money won’t go needle as far. with good reason though. but £800k cash would still get you very nice place in kent

jclm · 29/12/2023 09:00

We are a bit further out than Cardiff and love it here. We also came from London and we miss the culture that London had to offer - theatres, dance, different languages and cultures. In South Wales there are wonderful beaches, forests, countryside. Have a look at Mumbles in Swansea (although this is a 1 HR 20 drive from Cardiff Central)

IClaudine · 29/12/2023 09:02

You could get somewhere lovely in Gower for your budget OP. Just over an hour to Cardiff Central or about half an hour to Swansea station.

KievLoverTwo · 29/12/2023 09:04

IClaudine · 29/12/2023 08:56

Power cuts also have to be considered, though if you have 800k I guess you can afford a backup generator or something?

A back up generator? OP says she wants to be less than an hour's drive from Cardiff Central, so I don't think this will be an issue.

Edited

Doesn't have to be arse end of nowhere for cuts. Last house was three miles outside a major town and we had three in nine months.

Mynewnameis · 29/12/2023 09:05

800k I would probably buy in a leafy suberb of Cardiff like pontcanna, cyncoed. Possibly penarth.

Unless you want village life then somewhere in the Vale.

IClaudine · 29/12/2023 09:06

Lisvane is nice, too.

HappyHolidai · 29/12/2023 09:08

Cardiff is a great place to live. Not countryside of course but the suburbs on the north side are close to it; it's nothing like London (Rhiwbina, Lisvane, for example).

I would say you probably don't want to be driving to Cardiff Central: traffic into the car park can be terrible; much better to get one of the train lines into the city. Vale of Glamorgan is a lovely area too. Llantwit Major has a station, good day-to-day shops and a strong community. Cowbridge is posher but you can walk to the beach if you live in LM, which makes it better to me (also Llantwit has better weather than Cardiff or Cowbridge; being in a dip by the coast it rains less and gets more Somerset weather)

IClaudine · 29/12/2023 09:09

HappyHolidai good points. Especially about the rain 🌧 !

Dmsandfloatydress · 29/12/2023 09:18

It's a massive budget for South wales. I would go smaller and put away for school fees or buy in the Cardiff High School catchment area in North Cardiff if you are planning a family. If you don't want to be in Cardiff itself I would focus your search on three areas, Monmouthshire, Vale of Glamorgan ( not Barry) and the Gower peninsula. All affluent and beautiful Arras to raise a family.

KievLoverTwo · 29/12/2023 09:25

IClaudine · 29/12/2023 08:56

Power cuts also have to be considered, though if you have 800k I guess you can afford a backup generator or something?

A back up generator? OP says she wants to be less than an hour's drive from Cardiff Central, so I don't think this will be an issue.

Edited

I just remembered the three planned cuts where we are now. First one we got three weeks notice. Second and third ones 48 then 32 hours notice. When the third one arrived (again, in about nine months) I got the hump and called them.

'The lines are old and we are upgrading them but two of those were emergency faults because the lines are old and need upgrading.

We are only legally required to give you 48 hours notice so that's what you get.

And no, we don't have a 2024 planned maintenance or upgrade schedule for you to work around.'

I live about six miles from a town with a population of 150k people.

Blueeyedmale · 29/12/2023 09:32

Cardiff is an absolute amazing city one of the best in the whole of the UK in my opinion,I have very fond memories of trips to roath park during my childhood.as someone who moves away during my childhood and has family all over south Wales it's really sad though that places like Newport, Cwmbran,blackwood the Valleys have been neglected and all the money put into Cardiff

cardibach · 29/12/2023 09:40

Doesn't have to be arse end of nowhere for cuts. Last house was three miles outside a major town and we had three in nine months.^ @KievLoverTwo I lived for 14 years in the most rural but if West Wales. I don't actually remember any power cuts. Internet wasn't a problem either (ultra fast available in most houses). An hour from Cardiff it definitely won't be an issue!
And PP is saying services are worse in Wales...

OP I second Penarth - I've lived here since 2019 and it's great. Small town feel, good independent shops and restaurants, and 10 mins in the train/15 in a car to Cardiff Central. Close to Cardiff for bigger shops, theatre etc.